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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29203722">I Think We're Close Enough</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/melted_stars/pseuds/melted_stars'>melted_stars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Winter ATLA Femslash 2021 Prompts [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Suki is a self-defense instructor, Yue is one of her students, it's just fluff y'all</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:20:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,085</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29203722</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/melted_stars/pseuds/melted_stars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A new student catches Suki's eye while she's teaching her beginner's self-defense class.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Suki/Yue (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Winter ATLA Femslash 2021 Prompts [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140131</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Winter ATLA Femslash Week 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I Think We're Close Enough</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title from "Latch" by Sam Smith</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Suki sighs heavily. Just one more class, and then she can go home to her worn out couch and the leftover chow mein in her fridge. If she’s lucky, there might even be a good movie on TV.</p><p>She always schedules the beginners session at the end of the day; it’s a somewhat restful end to a day of intense sparring with her advanced students and the exacting drills she teaches her intermediate classes.</p><p>Taking one last draught from her water bottle, she turns to greet the people who are slowly filtering into the large studio space.</p><p>“Hello everyone! Class will begin in a couple minutes, so please, make yourselves comfortable. And if you didn’t see them coming in, there are some cubbies in the corner over there to put your stuff in.”</p><p>That taken care of, Suki busies herself with making sure all the mats are straight, occasionally glancing over at the crowd milling around the cubbies. One woman in particular catches her eye. Her hair is almost blindingly white, strange to see on someone so young, and it provides a sharp contrast to her golden brown skin. She is wearing long athletic leggings and a tank top with the lunar cycle printed on it, yet Suki wouldn’t be surprised if she was some sort of modern goddess from the way she holds herself. Not wanting to get caught staring, she looks away and at the clock.</p><p>Suki straightens and claps her hands twice to get everyone’s attention. “Okay! I want everyone to form a circle in the middle of the room so we can introduce ourselves,” she calls. It has become a habit of Suki’s to start every beginner’s self-defense class with some quick introductions, including why each person signed up for the class. This helps her adjust her instruction to each student’s needs. Most of her clientele are women who are looking for a way to protect themselves in a world that can so often be violent towards them, but all sorts of people take her class.</p><p>Absorbed in trying to commit each student to memory, it takes Suki a minute to realize who is now speaking.</p><p>“...name is Yue. I'm currently attending Republic City University as a political science major, and I’m here because a friend recommended that this was a great place to learn self-defense,” the lunar goddess, whose name is now revealed to be Yue, says.</p><p><em>Political science major? Maybe she knows Aang. Republic City University is pretty big though, so the chance of her knowing him is slim. But then again, Aang is pretty hard to miss.</em> Suki almost misses the next person’s name, still reflecting on what she has learned about Yue. <em>Get it together, Suki. You don’t even know her, for Spirits’ sake.</em></p><p>Once introductions are over, Suki tells everyone to spread out and find their own space on one of the various mats spread around the room. She leads the class through some warm-up exercises before turning again to address her students.</p><p>“One of the most important principles in self-defense is learning to use your opponent’s force against them. Your attacker may be bigger or stronger than you, but that doesn’t mean the fight is automatically over. You have the tools, you just need to learn how to use them,” Suki says. “Now I want everyone to find a partner, so we can start going through some of the basic movements.”</p><p>Everyone shuffles around to find a partner, most making frantic eye contact with someone they already know or had talked to before class. As it happens, Yue is the odd one out, leaving her to be partnered with Suki.</p><p>“Well, it looks like you’re stuck with me,” Suki says, trying to keep her tone light as she walks over to Yue. Of all the people to have as her partner, it had to be the one she was attracted to?</p><p>“I don’t mind,” Yue smiles, and something suspiciously like butterflies flutters in Suki’s stomach.</p><p>Suki gestures to the front of the room, feeling awkward. “We’ll be sparring up there, so I can show everyone the proper movements.”</p><p>Yue just nods and follows Suki to the instructor’s mat.</p><p>As they go through the stances and the different countermoves, Suki is extremely aware of every place their bodies touch. Because it’s a beginner’s class, the motions are done slowly at first, which Suki usually doesn’t mind. This time, however, every movement seems charged with expectation. It’s as if Yue and Suki’s bodies are communicating in a whole different language. When they lock eyes, everything else seems to fade, and Suki almost forgets that she’s supposed to be teaching a class.</p><p>Finally, blessedly, the class ends, Yue moves away from her, and Suki can think clearly again. After gathering her things, Suki turns to find that everyone has left except for Yue, who is lingering by the door. Suki approaches, apprehensive. Why is she still here?</p><p>“Did you enjoy the class?” she asks instead.</p><p>“Yes, very much. I learned a lot,” Yue replies, and for some reason a blush rises to her cheeks. Suki decides to throw caution to the wind, because she <em>cannot</em> walk away from Yue when they had shared whatever <em>that</em> was earlier.</p><p>“Would you like to go out sometime?”</p><p>A bright smile appears on Yue’s face. “I would love to.”</p><p>“Great! That’s great. Let’s exchange numbers so we can plan something sometime this week. Only if that works for you, of course,” Suki adds, remembering that Yue is a college student who probably has a very busy schedule.</p><p>“That works for me,” Yue announces as they swap phones.</p><p>“Okay, sounds good.”</p><p>“Yup.”</p><p>They stare at each other in awkward silence for a moment before bursting out into laughter.</p><p>“I should get going. I have a lot of studying to do,” Yue finally says, slightly breathless from the echoes of laughter still in her voice.</p><p>“Me too. Well, not studying, but I should probably be getting home anyway,” Suki responds. “I’ll walk you out?”</p><p>“Sure. But I’ll have you know that I <em>can</em> defend myself. You see, I just took a self-defense class led by the most amazing teacher,” Yue teases.</p><p>“She must have been pretty good if you have so much confidence after just one class.”</p><p>“Oh, she was, but I hope for many more lessons in the future.”</p><p>“I’m sure I can make that happen,” Suki grins, thanking fate or whatever spirits there may be for sending this celestial woman her way.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Additional things that I couldn't find a place for in the fic:<br/>-Sokka is totally the one who recommended Suki's class to Yue<br/>-He and Zuko are regulars there, though both have yet to beat Suki in a sparring match<br/>-Did Sokka immediately try to join the advanced class and then promptly get beaten up by Suki, who told him to think about taking the beginner class first? maybe<br/>-Aang is a political science and environmental science double major which is why Suki thinks Yue might know him<br/>-Look if Yue had survived in canon, you know she would be ruling the NWT and doing an amazing job. Thus the political science major<br/>-Also Yue intentionally did not partner with any of the other students in the hope that she could instead work with the cute instructor<br/>-She's sneaky like that</p></blockquote></div></div>
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